Aston Martin’s Sporting Director Andy Stevenson opens up talking about Eddie Jordan, his off-weekend load, FIA decisions and more.
Having joined Jordan in 1991 under Eddie, it has been a remarkable journey for Stevenson who is still with the Silverstone-based team despite multiple change of owners. From joining as a mechanic, he has come away long and now is the Sporting Director.
His role is more to be the link between the F1 team and the FIA where he is the point of contact for every matter whether during or off race weekends when the governing body is involved. He has been in the sport for more than 30 years with the same team.
But it started under Jordan who pushed him in his way and even noted that you won’t survive, but Stevenson in some ways took the motivation and proved him wrong. Being in his current role, it is a big task considering how lobbying is these days.
He has to be smart about the decisions during race weekends where they want to appeal. Stevenson revealed how he watches as many replays of various incidents and races in off-season to know what can be used as a precedent for a case that can come his way.
One of them was seen in Jeddah when he presented multiple examples of teams getting away from any penalty by touching when serving a penalty and the FIA had to re-give the third place to Fernando Alonso, which is rare from the governing body after penalising.
Stevenson explains his methods and has some sympathy for the FIA too, especially after how Australian GP was handled with multiple red flag periods. He feels it was the right thing considering the amount of information they have than anyone else.
He trusts the FIA as does everybody in the paddock because safety can never be compromised. Looking ahead to the weekend format especially in sprint weekends, Stevenson likens the new one since it won’t compromise the Sunday position.
Here’s what Andy Stevenson said –
Proving Eddie Jordan wrong –
Stevenson: “I was much, much younger in those days and, although I couldn’t see it then, looking back now it was clear what Eddie was doing. Eddie was trying to motivate me. It wasn’t that he didn’t want me in the team. What he wanted was to get me doing double the amount of work that he was paying me for – and that’s exactly what he got. When he said that, I thought, ‘I’ll prove you wrong: I’ll keep my head down, work hard and still be here.’ It didn’t feel like hard work, though.
“It was easy because I was enjoying what I was doing. You don’t feel the stresses and strains when you get satisfaction from everything that you’re doing in your job. That’s what has kept me going each year and why I’ve stayed here for so long. Every year you look forward and think about how things can improve and how you can contribute to that improvement. Before you know it, you’ve been doing it for 35 years!”
Watching replays to know all the incidents/penalties –
Stevenson: “When things are stressful, that’s when I thrive. Those moments are challenging but they’re right in my wheelhouse. That’s when I can draw on all my knowledge and experience. You can call on past experiences and precedents that have been set. Every off-season, I watch replays of races – endlessly. It drives my wife crazy, but I do it to remind myself of what’s happened and the precedents that have been set so I can be prepared for the challenging moments we’ll inevitably face in the season ahead. And, obviously, I do a lot of preparation with the Sporting Regulations – you have to know them inside out.”
Appealing decisions when –
Stevenson: “You’ve got to pick your fights. You can’t always be in the ear of the FIA. Sometimes decisions won’t go in your favour, but you’ve got to roll with it. When it’s fairly clear-cut or something that you’re going to gain from, that’s when you go in to fight your corner. You need to have every shred of information that will support your case ready to present to the FIA. You can never appeal a decision on a whim.
“If you start crying wolf, the FIA will never listen to you. I always feel that we, as a team, go in very well prepared and at the right times – and I think we’ve seen the fruits of that this season with the way some of the final decisions have played out, such as us regaining Fernando’s podium in Jeddah.”
Situation in Australian GP with red flags and if FIA were right –
Stevenson: “We saw the second red flag and standing start in Australia as an opportunity. We had the same thing with Sebastian Vettel a couple of years ago at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Some team members wanted the race stopped and not restarted but Seb was saying, ‘No, we’ve got to get this race restarted.’ He saw it as an opportunity and, in the end, we went from third to second. In Australia, we could see that both Fernando and Lance wanted a restart and you think to yourself, ‘OK, we could be on for an even better result here.’ Obviously, it didn’t quite work out that way, at least not immediately after the restart, but it was certainly exciting.
“The Australian Grand Prix ended the only way it could have. It’s clearly written in the regulations. We had a conversation with Race Control before it all happened, to let them know what our understanding of the rules was, and they informed us of the decision they were going to make and that their interpretation of the rules was the same. There was a bit of uncertainty, but the FIA got it right.
“They’ve learned from things that have happened over the last few years, and they managed the Australian Grand Prix extremely well. They are the only ones with all the information and people need to remember that. None of the people who were disagreeing with the red flag in Australia had all information about the condition of the safety barriers, what was happening around the circuit, and where the safety vehicles and doctors were. No one did, except the FIA. We have to trust the FIA because they have all the information.”
Sympathy for the FIA –
Stevenson: “The FIA can never win. When the race goes well it’s because everyone else was great and when it goes wrong it’s because the FIA got it wrong. I feel for them, but it goes with the territory – they take on that responsibility and they handle it very well.”
Weekend format in Baku and sprint events –
Stevenson: “We’re very close to finalising the format. We’ve been working closely with the FIA and going through it carefully with our engineers and strategists to make sure it’s workable. We all support the new format, but we need to make sure that the regulations are going to work as intended. What I like about the proposed new format is that the two parts of the event, the Sprint and the Grand Prix, are separate.
“Drivers will push harder and take more risks in the Sprint because their finishing position won’t affect their grid position on Sunday. It’s going to be an extremely exciting weekend. Baku is an interesting selection for a Sprint race. It could be very challenging for the teams and drivers, especially because of the high attrition rate that we get in Baku due to the unforgiving nature of the circuit.
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